Reviews with content warning for Bullying - A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy

Title: A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
Author: Sue Klebold
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: February 15 2016

T H R E E • W O R D S

Interesting • Courageous • Reflective

📖 S Y N O P S I S

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives.

Every day since, Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother, has lived and grappled with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. In A Mother's Reckoning she tells her story; her attempt to come to terms with what happened, and help shed light on one of the most pressing issues of our time.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I picked up A Mother's Reckoning with an open mind and heart, and to say it opened my eyes is an understatement. This book gave me an inside glimpse into the aftermath of a tragedy from a perspective I had never considered. It really separates mother from child and appealed to my humanity to find compassion and empathy for a mother (and her son) at the heart of one of the worst mass shootings in history. It revealed the many complicated layers to any human, and explored the notion that we cannot know everything that goes on within a person's mind.

Grief is difficult under any circumstance, but the circumstances surrounding Dylan's death make for an even more complicated grieving process as I saw throughout the book. There are certainly no answers or excuses for what happened on that fateful April day, but I believe it's important to remember this mother lost her child. That isn't to undermine what happened and the grief of all those involved, but at the end of the day grief isn't a contest; it is the emotional reaction to love.

I must say this is one of the most reflective books I have read so far this year. It left me questioning a lot and how I would react if I was to ever find myself in a similar position and I always appreciate when a book can do that. It is by no means perfect, but at the end of the day I commend Sue for taking the risk (knowing there would be backlash) in putting her experience out into the world with the hope of spotlighting brain healthy and supporting mental health initiatives. It is my hope that the process was healing for her in some way, and I am glad I picked it up.

*Note: this book contains graphic descriptions of the events that took place a Columbine in April 1999, so I think it's important the readers knows this going in.*

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• True crime fans
• mental health advocates

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"We teach our kids the importance of good dental care, proper nutrition, and financial responsibility. How many of us teach our children to monitor their own brain health, or know how to do it ourselves?"

"One thing is certain: when we can do a better job of helping people before their lives are in crisis, the world will become safer for all of us."

Content Warnings

katreads2022's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

I don’t rate memoirs on content, as I believe it is not my place to insensitively assign numerical values to people’s lived experiences. This review is purely based on structure and readability for a general audience.

This memoir is a devastating exploration of the human psyche and parenting. Klebold is respectful while attempting to carefully navigate the heavy subject of this novel. She advocates for different approaches to mental health services and parenting. Not always convincing in her approach, I in particular disagreed with some of her affirmations about parenting: no, it is not good to search through your teenager’s personal and private journals; no, it is not fair to characterize video games as being a significant contributor to violent behaviour. She makes some assertions bare on evidence interspersed with other cases she is clearly better versed in. I think one can learn a lot from this book- at least to help understand differing perspectives. That being said, the memoir is quite long and Klebold repeats her points at time. This is fine to reinforce an important takeaway, but occurs so many times it becomes repetitive.

A tragic, reflective memoir.

Content Warnings

bookswithmybulldog's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

3.5

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